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First off, welcome on the Pathfinder RPG community !
This guide is intended to help Dungeon Masters ("DM") and Players alike to understand how to make sure everyone is having fun around the table, a task well-suited to a roleplaying tabletop game.
Maybe your DM sent you a link to this guide.
This is a good indication that you currently have a comprehensive DM who wants you to have fun in his coming game, and is wanting to take his time to build adventures which will give you a good time.
This DM is thinking about you, player. He wants you to have fun, and wants you to know it. He also wants to make sure everyone understands how to behave in this collaborative, social game. By showing you this thread, he wants you to understand what are it's duties, it's rights, and what are yours.
While he plays any and every foe you will meet in the adventure, and while your life always depends on his will ; he is also the one who makes sure you will want to play again next time with a smile on your face, and to talk again about your upcoming adventures in the years to come.
Or, maybe you are a DM having difficulties to deal with your role, and are searching for answers or advices to make the game more fun for everyone - you included.
In any case, this guide will provide you with important rules of conduct when it comes to play roleplaying games that one normally acquires through experience - and most often, BAD experiences. Please read it carefully.
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Table of content :
1. Pathfinder : a collaborative game
- The Most Important Rule
- The 5 Pathfinder Rules
2. FAQ
a. Do you have advices for a new DM ?
b. My DM isn't letting me play X/do X !
c. How to deal with difficult players ?
d. How to deal with difficult DMs ?
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1. Pathfinder : a collaborative game
Pathfinder RPG, before anything else, is a game. Simple and stupid.
A game is something people do to have fun. The only way to play this game wrong is by not having fun, not because the rules aren't followed exactly as written.
It is thus important to emphasize this statement : the DM and the players are playing with each other.
The DM isn't here to kick player's asses. He's here to challenge them with deadly situations, and provide them with fun and memorable adventures. But with great responsability come great powers, and, as written on the Core Rulebook :
The Most Important Rule
The rules in this book are here to help you breathe life into your characters and the world they explore. While they are designed to make your game easy and exciting, you might find that some of them do not suit the style of play that your gaming group enjoys. Remember that these rules are yours. You can change them to fit your needs. Most Game Masters have a number of “house rules” that they use in their games. The Game Master and players should always discuss any rules changes to make sure that everyone understands how the game will be played. Although the Game Master is the final arbiter of the rules, the Pathfinder RPG is a shared experience, and all of the players should contribute their thoughts when the rules are in doubt.
Read it.
Then read it again just to be sure.Pathfinder's N°1 Rule :
Dungeon Masters have all authority on their game, and are the final deciders on any topic ever brought on the table.
Players, DMs, there is no "in our group, the DM must" ; "explain yourself or I don't accept it" ; or "but you are doing it wrong, you are DOING IT WRONG AND SEE I SAY IT LOUDER SO I'M RIGHT OK" argument to have. If the DM says "no", it's f#@$ing "". Stop b&+*~ing around. Don't be a spoiled, immature, stupid, childish and ridiculous brat peeing himself. The DM is god at his table, he is using his time to provide you with a game, and this means you have to follow his rules, deal with it. BUT, thankfully for everyone, you can...
Pathfinder's N°2 Rule :
Talk to each other.
One of the most ignored, and simplest solution for DMs and players when it comes to arguments, is to talk to each other. DMs, players, do it before playing. Do it during the game. Do it between sessions. DMs, check if your players are having fun, ask them what you could make better. If you aren't having fun, explain them why and ask for change.
Players, talk to your DM about what you would like to see happen in the game, what kind of dilemmas you would like for your characters to deal with, what could be fun to happen to a fellow player as to encourage roleplay drama, talk to him about what you don't like and could be changed.
While the DM is God in his game, he is also a human being.
He is here for you to have fun. You are here to have fun.
=> Talk. To. Each. Other.
Pathfinder's N°3 Rule :
There is no fun if someone in the group isn't having fun.
DM, you are not a writer working on a novel. The players are individuals, and have characters with free will. While banning some classes for roleplay and setting reasons can make an universe more interesting, saying to a player what he HAS to play, or suggesting him in a forceful way is a no-no. It's up to you to make the sessions challenging whatever the group's composition, not to the players to absolutely "have a cleric" or "play a rogue". Railroading the adventure is also a big no. Do concessions, and if your player wants to do something strange, make sure it would work and the player is able to use this opportunity.
Players, don't optimize so much your characters that they are overshadowing the group. You wouldn't want to be the Robin of their Batmans, don't make them suffer the situation. Play what you want to play, in the limits defined by the DM. Don't be a jerk by playing voluntarily an antagonist to another player's character (like a Chaotic Evil necromancer with a paladin), it never ends well, except if you talk to each other beforehand to make it work in a fun and mature way during the adventure.
Pathfinder's N°4 Rule :
Roleplay. Lots of it.
DMs, use your player's characters to create interesting and stimulating situations. A player's NPC brother is a roleplay goldmine, and you will make sure that everyone around the table is interested and implicated in the story.
Players, always explain your characters, how they became what they are. Provide a minimum informations to the DM so he may create a story just for you. Don't scuttle the roleplay occasions just for the fun of it, you will lose at this game, your adversary (which it shouldn't be) is God. Play your character as he is on the sheet, have the character on the sheet be what you play.
Pathfinder's N°5 Rule :
You love it, or you leave it.
DM, your players are bullying you ? They take your advices or fiats for s#&&, play non-legal characters, refuse your limitations, argue the N°1 rule, then have the nerve to use the Rules As Written (but badly read) as an argument afterhand ? They argue during hours your decisions despite your will to be open-minded ? They physically assault a fellow player or yourself ? They are overly lacking respect to you, your neighboors ?
Players, your DM is the insufferable jerk who railroads the story, makes rocks fall, cheats rolls when it makes him "win", follows the rules only when it arranges him, and seems like he is in a power trip with his Alpha Male position of all-powerfulness ?
Call the police if necessary, say goodbye, take your pack, and leave.
This is a GAME.
When you don't have fun with a game, you just leave it and do something better. Remember this. Pathfinder is no exception. There are a lots of nice groups out there or even the Play By Post, don't stick with the stinky group when it comes to RPGs ; especially when they are your friends and your experience could ruin this relationship.
2. FAQ
a. Do you have advices for a new GM ?
Well, as a rule of thumbs :
- Stick with the least amount of rules possible. Even try grabbing the Pathfinder Beginner Box, to enter into the system with a convivial and simple version of the rules !
- If you play in a new group, try being a player during several sessions before being a DM, so you know better what style of game and characters the group likes.
- The DM must always warn players of the rules he wants or doesn't want to use in his game before the game begins, including any houserules. Suddenly changing the rules during the course of the game is both bad form and bad DMing, and should be avoided.
- Your should ALWAYS have your players's character sheet accessible both in paper, and numerical form to check on when needed.
- Don't hesitate to search on the Paizo Messageboards if you need an advice, if you have a rules question, or if something looks fishy and overly powerful in a player's build - like someone double-wielding bows with a four-armed race from an obscure supplement in alpha playtest you don't have access to ; a druid/monk flurrying with natural attacks plus unarmed strikes plus a lot of damage bonus ; or a sorcerer/monk/arcane archer casting several spells per round.* Paizo Messageboards are like Skynet, if Skynet was made of rules-lawyer whose favorite hobby was to play with a complicated RPG with each potential loophole acknowledged and toyed with.
- Do concessions for everyone's fun. But accept no lack of respect, nor argumentation over your decisions.
- You have to know the rules you use ; or to have someone around the table you trust and who knows the right rule at the right time (often called a "rules lawyer"). If during the course of the game a rules argument appears, use the short rule provided in the Core Rulebook : a +2 or -2 to a roll usually is enough. Your duty is to check on the rule for the next time this situation occurs ; your player's duty is to keep the game rolling, not to interrupt it and begin an endless argument about it. YOU are the rulebook once the game begins.
- The Pathfinder Game Mastery Guide provides a lot of deeper advices about how to run a campaign. Grab it when possible on Paizo Store or your local dealer.
- Send this thread to your players. ;)
b. My DM isn't letting me play X/do X !
- Anything you want to play is subject to DM fiat and approval, including AFTER inclusion in the game. If the DM says no to your character or is using a houserule, refer to Pathfinder's N°1 Rule.
- If the DM banned a rule/supplement/class/concept/spell, DON'T argue.
- If you really want to use this rule/whatever, ask him why he banned it.
- If you REALLY want to use this rule/whatever, propose to play with the banned rule, with the condition that your character may be retired at any time if he breaks the balance of the game and makes the game less fun for others. You are signing a social contract of "not being a dick", and it is better for everyone's fun if you don't abuse it.
c. How to deal with difficult players ?
So your players are the kind to argue a lot. Like, all the time, while not being the cleanest when it comes to see how they built their character by forgetting some "details". Despite you applying all this guide's advices so everyone can enjoy the game, they don't even apply the N°4 rule. Or they don't listen to you, or make the rules pass before anything else - including your parole. Maybe they made a list about what the DM can or cannot do. Well, they are f&#*ing wrong, as the Most Important, the N°1 and the N°3 rules already explained.
Use °2. Discuss with them. Make them understand you don't have fun, and would like more respect for the work you originally provide so everyone can have fun around the table with a good ambiance. You're their friend in this game, not their enemy, and this implies that everyone knows it's place.
If this simple thing doesn't work after one or more sessions, use rule °5 as soon as possible.
Some people are just stupid and you will change nothing to this fact. You just have to leave and find better players. Dump them, walk without looking at the explosion. Don't give them a childish "rocks fall, everyone dies", you'll feel much better once you're out and ready to play again with better people.
d. How to deal with difficult DMs ?
So your DM is sometimes dickish, or really doing a lot of things that annoy players around the table. Changing rules on the fly, playing an overshadowing DMPC, trying to kill the PCs as his principal objective before "putting a good experience and adventure for everyone". You wish things would change. You don't have fun because another player is way more powerful, or because the DM seems to hate your character so much that there are only barbarians to fight with your rogue, or antipaladins attacking your paladin by surprise.
Try rule N°2. Explain your problems in private, your current griefs, and what you suggest so everyone can have a better experience during the game. You could even send him this thread as a friendly advice. You just want to have fun, like everyone else, without impairing your fellow players's.
If this doesn't work after some more sessions, use rule N°5. Simple. You don't have to play when you don't have fun.
(*These are real-life examples of players stupidity and munchkinism, not exagerations to make a point. I let you think about them.)
